


Märchen Headhunt

by BecMcc



Category: MÄR - Märchen Awakens Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Basically the whole freaking cast is in here, Gen, Made up name for Ginta's mom, OCs - Freeform, Violence, as in violence not writing, characters from the anime fillers also show up, might get worse later on, spoilers for volume 4
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-01-16 13:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1348543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BecMcc/pseuds/BecMcc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six years ago, the lead Knight of the Chess Pieces, Phantom, was defeated by a warrior from another world. Now, determined for revenge the Chess decide to play a more dangerous game with very few rules. Ginta and his comrades have to survive this game if they hope to save MÄR heaven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Game Start

Chapter 1: Game start  
  
In the midst of celebrating of a recent defeat of the chess pieces in Vestry and the people having their farmland restored the moon started to project an image of a man with long blonde hair and a pointed hat in black robes. The villagers started panicking.  
    “Greetings residents of Mär heaven.” Said the image, “We, the Chess Pieces wish to invite all who want to rebel against us to the Headhunt Games.”  
    “I knew it!” Shouted the dog, Ed, “Their second stage for this time!”  
    “What do ya mean this time?” The blonde other worlder, Ginta, asked.  
    “Last time they did a tournament style series of fights called the War Games, it looks like, this time, they may be hell bent on eliminating their enemies.”  
    “We’ll be meeting you at Ragenrave castle at the center of Mär Heaven.” The man continued then projecting an image of the map of the world with the meeting place marked in red. “Since we have taken over this area we’d figure it would make a convenient meeting place.” The image of the man returned “We haven’t forgotten our grudge from six years ago. If you fail to show up then we’ll burn Mär Heaven to the ground. We look forward to seeing you there, especially the ärm Babbo and the boy using him. The time is noon the day after tomorrow. We’ll be waiting.” The man’s image disappeared as he laughed.  
    “Now’s not the time for fooling around.” Said the blue haired princess, Snow putting her hand on Ginta’s shoulder, “Let’s go to Ragenrave!”  
    “Yeah but the whole world is depending on us.” Said the black haired farm boy, Jack, shivering. “That’s a lot of pressure on a country bumpkin like myself.”  
    “True, but the Cross Guard has lost morale and weakened since Dana died. So we can’t really expect very many of them to show up. We kind of have no choice.” Said Ed.  
    “Well who needs ‘em.” The blonde man wearing a blindfold, Nanashi, shrugged. “As long as you got me you’ve got nothing to worry about.”  
    “I suppose we don’t really have a choice.” Said, the pink haired witch, Dorothy, ‘Besides, maybe the chess can give me information about her.’  
    “Ginta, go.” Encouraged one of the villagers, “We can take care of ourselves but right now, Mär heaven needs a hero, and you’re that hero.” Ginta froze and looked at him. “Besides, you gave us hope, they need that right now.” He was paralyzed realizing that he’s already under so much pressure and the games haven’t even started.  
    “All right.” He said with his fists clenched.  
    “Well said Ginta, now onward!” Said the hammer and ball weapon with a mustache Babbo.  
A couple days later, some time before noon, civilians were hanging around, playing cards, getting drunk in broad daylight, and even keeping their eyes on the gate. Few have come but they didn’t seemed to be allied with the cross guard, for all of them lacked their emblem.  
    “Man it’s almost noon.” One of the men groaned shuffling a deck of cards. “Don’t tell me this is it.” He dealt the cards between him and his partner.  
    “We’re all gonna die aren’t we? I mean for crying out loud it doesn’t look like any of these contenders are ärm wielders.” Said his partner, panic wavering in his voice.  
    “Hey look!” Shouted another man in the distance. They, as well as the other contenders turned to see an army of men and some women coming into the castle walls all wearing the emblem of a cross somewhere on their clothing.  
    “It’s the cross guard!” Someone cried.  
    “Is that-” One of the men began when they saw an elderly man with spiky grey hair and blue robes entering the gate.  
    “It is!” Continued another, “It’s Gaira! The third in command of the last war games!” Gaira looked around.  
    “Alviss, Alan isn’t here.” He addressed the young man with purple spiky hair wearing a long sleeved top accompanied by a fairy. “Did he say anything when you met with him?”  
    “I don’t think-” He began, thinking back to the time he ran into him guarding some training gates.  
    “Well well, this has certainly been a while.” They turned to see a red headed woman, her hair tied up in a bun and wearing a suit of armor with the cross guard’s emblem on it. She was accompanied by a man with messy chin length black hair wearing brightly colored robes.  
    “Ah Elizabeth!” Said Gaira, “I thought you wouldn’t come.  
    “Why not? Not like I have anything to loose.” She said with a smirk.  
    “And who’s this man?” Gaira asked.  
    “Oh, I’m Robert.” The man introduced himself with a bow, “I’m Elizabeth’s traveling companion. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  
    “Likewise.” Gaira replied.  
     _‘How long is this guy gonna stick around?’_ Alviss thought looking over to Robert.  
    “Who is this woman?” Bell the tiny fairy whispered to him.  
    “That’s Elizabeth, one of our members from the last war.” Alviss whispered back. “Last time she was mostly there for support and didn’t participate in the War Games.” Elizabeth looked over to him.  
    “Ah Alviss, You’ve certainly grown up.” She said looking up and down him. “You know now I’d probably date you if you were ten to twenty years older.”  
    “What?” Bell shouted, Elizabeth then burst out laughing.  
    “Always joking as usu-” Alviss began.  
    “Whoa! Did we make it in time?” Shouted a different voice, interrupting Alviss. He turned to see the other worlder he invited to Mär Heaven and the talking ärm Babbo, along with their companions.  
    “Hopefully we made it in time.” Said Princess Snow.  
    “Relax, this place was within Andata’s range, since I snuck around here before.” Said Nanashi.  
    “You’ve been everywhere, haven’t you?” Ed commented.  
    “So where’re the Chess?” Dorothy question  
    “Ah! You!” Jack shrieked when he spotted Alviss.  
    “Yo Alviss! Long time no see!” Ginta greeted with a peace sign.  
    “Ah … Yeah.” Said Alviss. ‘Ginta? This magical power … it’s almost like he’s a different person.’ He then looked over to Ed, “Gaira, Alan’s here.” This left his seniors clueless. When noon struck a woman with long black hair in a white dress walked out of the castle.  
    “Welcome everyone. You have my deepest gratitude.” She said.  
    “Princess!” The locals cheered.  
     _‘Princess? Like Snow?’_ Ginta thought, _‘Why is she here.'_  
    “I will explain the rules of the Headhunt Games.” She said. “Rule One, you are not allowed to use the ärm Andata. Rule two, you have to go to specific checkpoints, marked on maps that will be provided to you. When you reach a check point you must show the chess pawns there this seal.” She holds up a metal amulet with a star on it. “Rule three, When you reach a town you may rest but only for a day. Rule four, forming teams is optional, but each team needs a leader, if that leader falls in battle, or surrenders then the whole team looses and is eliminated. Rule five, if you run into the Chess pieces you must battle them. Rule six, you’re allowed to switch out team members in case one of them is injured. Rule seven, with the exception of those six rules, anything goes. Break any of those six rules and you’ll be met with severe punishment.”  
    “So this time it’s a race.” Alviss muttered. _‘Whoever gets to the finish line first will win the war I presume.’_  
    “This is less regulated than the War games from six years ago!” Ed commented.  
    “Yeah it seems like they want a quicker way to get rid of the opposition.” Dorothy added. “Though I guess it could be expected since it looks like there are several independent parties this time around, so it would be a bother to keep track of them all.”  
    “You all have the rest of the day to prepare for the Games starting tomorrow. Please use any of the shops in the city.” Continued the princess. “Before you go, there are maps within the castle, please receive them in an orderly fashion.”  
A few hours later Team Mär were in Ragenrave’s market.  
    “Let’s see … what are we gonna need?” Snow asked.  
    “Food, of course!” Said Nanashi, “It’s a necessity after all.”  
    “I agree. We cannot keep up our strength without it.” Said Babbo. “What do you think Ginta?” Ginta ignored him and ran around excited rushing to every stall to get a look at the merchandise.  
    “Oh lord, not again.” Moaned Jack.  
    “Ginta!” Snow shouted, “Now’s not the time to goof off, we need to prepare to for this race!”  
    “Oh let him have a little bit of fun.” Said Dorothy. “You’ll never know if he’s gonna die tomorrow, just like Dana.”  
    “Besides we don’t need to worry about food.” Said Jack showing off his bracelet, “I can just grow our food.”  
    “Okay, but what will we do about water?” Babbo asked.  
    “Well we could use Snow’s nature ärm.” Jack suggested. “Also we can use some of the streams in the area.”  
    “Still we should still get some variety, I’d probably get sick of eating just vegetables.” Said Nanashi.  
    “Okay, we don’t have to worry about food for water from the sounds of it, but what else do we need?” Ed wondered.  
    “How about this?” Asked Snow holding out a bottle of rum.  
    “Yeah! I like your thinking!” Laughed Nanashi.  
    “No. Put that back Princess.” Ed answered.  
    “Hey guys, what about medical supplies? Y’know, bandages and stuff?” Ginta asked with his hands behind his back.  
    “We don’t really need to worry, besides, we have holy ärm to heal our injuries.” Nanashi shrugged off. “Let’s separate and look around for a bit.”  
    “All right but meet back here.” Ordered Ed before everyone walked off in their separate directions, Ginta and Babbo stayed behind along with Dorothy.  
    “Wha’cha got hiding there?” She asked.  
    “I’m curious as well.” Said Babbo. Ginta showed them something wrapped up in a white cloth.  
    “It’s filled with bandages and stuff. I thought we would need it just in case.” He explained.  
    “Aw, that’s considerate for you.” She said, “You mind if I hang on to that?” Ginta held the bundle close to him. “Relax, dimension ärm zipper!” Then a giant zipper appeared out of nowhere, “This’ll keep them safe.”  
    “Okay, I’m trusting you on this.” Said Ginta giving her the bundle. She then put it into the zipper.  
  
Night time at the cross guard’s camp on the outskirts of the city, most of the men had their guards down for the night by sleeping or chatting to one another. Alviss couldn’t help but feel uneasy as he stared into the campfire, he kept having this unsteady feeling that someone is watching him. He kept looking over his shoulder, then his mind kept wandering back to Ginta and his safety.  
    “Is something bothering you Alviss?” Bell asked.  
    “I just can’t shake this feeling that we’re being watched.” He said.  
    “Why not get some rest, I’ll take a look.” She offered.  
    “No, I think I’ll stay up a little longer.” He refused. He looked into the camp fire contemplating.  
    “Are you thinking about that boy?” Bell asked.  
    “Yeah, I wonder if Ginta will be really okay. I mean the war is going to be more harsh this time around …” He muttered to himself.  
    “Worried about the boy with Babbo Kiddo?” Alviss turned to see Elizabeth behind him, “You mind?”  
    “No mam.” He replied scooting over giving her a place to sit down. “Please don’t call me ‘Kiddo’ I’m sixteen.”  
    “Well you’re still under twenty, in other words, a kid.” She laughed Alviss growled, annoyed. “Listen, if you’re really worried about that kid why not go join his group so you could watch over him.” She suggested.  
    “Me worried about that kid, no way.” Alviss denied.  
    “Really now? How come I just heard you say that were worried about this Ginta kid to your fairy friend?” She sneered.  
    “But I can’t just leave the cross guard.” He excused.  
    “What’s stopping you? Gaira? Other members? I’m sure they’ll understand Kiddo.” She said, “Hell we’re even fighting on the same side so there’s really no harm done.”  
    “But …” Alviss began.  
    “No excuses, just get your ass in gear and join him. I’ll take care of Gaira and the others.” She interrupted with a wink. “Just as soon as we take care of our little thief.” The two jolted their heads to the figure of a child who’s gender is ambiguous due to the scarf covering their face. The child took something off a sleeping soldier then quickly stuffed it in their pocket and started running.  
    “Thirteen totem pole!” Alviss shouted then a totem pole sprang out of the ground cutting off their escape. Alviss ran forward to grab the child but their ring glowed summoning a flash of light blinding Alviss, once his vision cleared the child was gone. He then turned to Elizabeth. “Why didn’t you do anything?”  
    “One, I’m tired, and two, I kinda wanted to see how far you’ve come these past six years.” She said. Alviss glared at her. “Now go before you manage to loose them.” Alviss huffed as he ran off. Bell followed behind.  
    “Oh and Bell is it?” Elizabeth said. The fairy stopped in her tracks and turned around.  
    “What?” She asked.  
    “Take care of Kiddo will ya?” She replied.  
    “You got it! I won’t let anything happen to him!” She promised before flying off.  



	2. Welcome to Team MÄR

Chapter 2: Welcome to Team Mär  
  
The next morning team Mär got up and packed their things and started off. It was around that time when Alviss and Belle arrived. He didn’t sleep the previous night so he was exhausted and he felt like he was about to fall over.  
    “Hey Alviss, what’s up?” Ginta asked.  
    “You mind if I join you?” Alviss asked back sounding airy.  
    “What? Aren’t you with-” Ginta began.  
    “I know.” Alviss interrupted, “I just want to join so I can keep an eye on you.”  
    “I don’t think you need to worry about that, as long as Dorothy and I are here.” Said Nanashi.  
    “Augh … Shut up.” Dorothy growled.  
    “It’s a mission.” Stated Belle, Alviss looked over to her and she responded with a wink. “We were ordered by the cross guard to keep an eye on Ginta to make sure he doesn’t turn traitor or something.”  
    “And why would I do that?”  
    “You have Phantom’s original ärm.” She pointed out, then glared at Babbo. “We just want to make sure that Babbo doesn’t tempt him or something.”  
    “A gentleman like me? Why I’d never!” Babbo shouted. “If anything he’ll tempt me into doing something stupid!”  
    “Hey!” Ginta shouted.  
    “Deny it all you want but in your heart you know it’s true!” The ärm shouted back.  
    “I don’t think this is helping Belle.” Alviss muttered to his fairy companion.  
    “Relax I got this.” She whispered back. She then turned to the rest of Team Mär. “Don’t blame us for the Cross Guard’s paranoia, we’re just doing our job.”  
    “Hey Ed. We might end up getting the seven ‘dwarves’ if Alviss joins.” Snow whispered to Ed.  
    “You’re right Princess.” Agreed Ed.  
    “Well for whatever reason we could use the extra help.” Snow stepped in, “We’d be glad to have you with us Alviss.”  
    “Thank you.” Said Alviss, the then shot a glare at Belle who shot back the same glare.  
    “Yeah that’s great and all but should we get going?” Jack asked pointing to the road behind him.  
    “He’s right.” Said Nanashi taking out the map. “Let’s get going, follow me.” The group started walking, around that time the moon started showing images of teams fighting the Chess not too far away.  
    “Hey! Look up there!” Said Belle. They looked up and saw the fights, the non-cross guard parties seemed to be holding their own, even though they were just pawns. A person whose face couldn’t be seen and wearing all black pinched a specific area on the neck causing the pawn to become limp. While the referee in the background called it then ran off. Then the moon switched to the image of a boy with tied back black hair some of it flipped over one eye wearing a grey jacket and black pants chocking a pawn to death with his scarf. Alviss noticed the scarf and squinted.  
     _‘Could it be?’_ He thought.  
    “Hm. Looks like the other parties are holding their own.” Said Dorothy, “Let’s get going.” Suddenly they were jumped by seven pawns.  
    “Hmph, just pawns?” Sighed Alviss summoning a bo staff, “Pathetic.”  
    “Hold on!” They head someone shout. A purple skin goblin like man walked up to them. “My name is Pozun, and I’ll be the referee for your battle.”  
    “Why do we need a ref?” Ginta questioned.  
    “To make sure that the rules are being followed.” Pozun explained. “Now, everyone, get your weapons ready and … begin!” Everyone else summoned their weapons and quickly defeated the pawns.  
    “Team …” Pozun began.  
    “Mär.” Ginta reminded.  
    “Thank you. Team Mär wins!” He announced.  
    “Well, that was too easy.” Said Jack. The moon showed that other independent parties mowed down the pawns, most of the time without ärms.  
    “I know, we barely broke a sweat.” Babbo gloated.  
    “You mean I barely broke a sweat you just served as my glove.” Ginta muttered.  
    “What did you say?” The ball snapped.  
    “Nothing …”  
    “It’s practically insulting.” Muttered Alviss, looking up ‘I mean I’m going off of virtually no sleep!’ They continued to the next town around that time the moon switched to an image of the cross guard, pawns killing more than fifty percent of the members. While the ones that were still alive were mowing down pawns left and right, namely Gaira, Elizabeth, and Robert. Alviss groaned and shook his head, his former team being slaughtered by the Chess, Pawns, they’re not even a threat in team Mär’s eyes.  
    “Wow. This is just sad.” Dorothy commented. “I thought most of the Cross Guard could at least put up a fight. This is just a massacre.”  
    “I think most of them were recently recruited so I don’t think they’ve had much training.” Said Snow.  
    “That explains a lot.” Nanashi muttered. “However the ones that aren’t getting killed are doing very well.”  
    “That’s because they’re veterans so of course they’ll have the experience. Though, besides Gaira I’m not sure if they’ve maintained their skill.” Said Alviss. Elizabeth hacked away at pawns left and right with her sword in some cases slicing them in half at the waist. Her face had a smirk across it as she slugged a pawn then stabbed it. Robert on the other hand was trying not to get hit and would often ask Elizabeth to keep the enemy away. She’d gladly oblige and used a wind nature ärm to blow them away, while Robert would focus his magical energy. When he’d manage to focus enough he’d take out an ärm and stab it into the ground then flames started rising from under the pawns burning them alive. Snow cringed while watching it. Alviss’s eyes widened when he saw the ärm. There was another man who had a flail with him and would kill off pawns with one swing to the head. There were also men and women that were shooting pawns with arrows. Several other soldiers killed off pawns with either a sword, axe, or a nature ärm that strengthens their body. The surviving Cross Guard hacked away at the pawns until all of them were dead. They stood among the pawn graveyard with their bloodied weapons and uniforms. By then it was sun down and team Mär was setting up camp. When night came, Jack gave everyone some vegetables that he grew the previous night.  
    “You know I’ve been wondering, who’s the leader for Team Mär?” Belle asked.  
    “It’s Ginta.” Said Alviss.  
    “How di-” Jack began.  
    “Through eliminating the possibilities.” Alviss interrupted. “Alan is stuck in a dog making him unable to lead, no one here would let you lead.”  
    “Hey!” Jack shouted.  
    “It’s true.” Nanashi muttered with a snicker under his breath.  
    “Plus I don’t think Nanashi, Dorothy, and Snow would want to lead for whatever reason and I wasn’t even here.” Alviss continued.  
    “Ha ha nailed it.” Snow laughed. “Though those aren’t the only reasons.”  
    “She’s right.” Said Ed. “We also chose Ginta for the fact that he came from another world just like Dana. We all know how powerful Dana became within the course of a few months, we’re hoping that Ginta will become powerful enough to defeat Phantom this time.”  
    “That’s a bit much don’t you think?” Babbo asked.  
    “I agree, these are high expectations for a child.” Alviss responded. “It’s a very risky gamble.”  
    “Not any more risky than the gamble you took bringing Ginta here.” Said Jack. Alviss growled a little.  
    “You have to admit, it’s true.” Belle muttered. “In any case I’m going to look around and get some herbs.”  
    “Be careful and don’t go too far.” Alviss warned.  
    “Don’t worry.” She said flying off.  
    “By the way what do you think about all of this Ginta?” Jack questioned, he didn’t get a response. “Ginta?” There was still no response he was curled up staring at the fire. “Is something wrong? You’ve been unusually quiet tonight.”  
    “Uh … I have?” Said Ginta coming out of the daze.  
    “Yes, and you’re being rude to Jack here, he asked you a question and you ignored him.”  
    “I di- I mean I wasn’t ignoring him I’m perfectly fine about all this. It’s not like I’m bothered by the brutal killings on both sides.” Ginta said quickly.  
     _‘Liar.’_ Dorothy and Snow thought.  
    “If you say so pal.” Shrugged Jack, “You sure you’re all right.”  
    “I’m fine, there’s no need to worry about me.” Ginta replied.  
Meanwhile in Lestava Castle the Chess Pieces, primarily the knights, were having a council over the day’s battles.  
    “That’s a pathetic display of our pawns!” One of the robbed knights complained. “We should just come in and kill them already!”  
    “Oh come now.” Said a man in robes wearing a skull mask and a hood. “We have to give some of these children participating a fighting chance.”  
    “You’re too soft.” Said Halloween, the man tied to a crucifix wearing a tomato looking mask. “We can’t keep sending in pawns like this or it’ll get boring.”  
    “Why not send in rooks instead?” The skull mask man asked.  
    “To hell with it! I really want to fight those bastards!” Shouted the robbed knight with a pointy top.  
    “Patience is a virtue.” Said the man who gave the announcement a few days ago, Peta. He then turned to their silver haired leader. “What do you think about this Phantom?”  
    “We’ll send in the rooks and a few bishops and let’s not come in until they’ve reached the second check point.” Phantom ordered. “Does anyone have any complaints?” There was silence. “Good, starting tomorrow our enemies will be fighting the rooks.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I thought I would try to expand Bell's role somehow, since she is a pretty despised character for being considered useless.


	3. Jason

  
Chapter 3: Jason  
  
Ginta and the rest of Team Mär woke up to Babbo screaming. He jolted up and turned to see a bug eyed emaciated man crouching, hunched over, and staring at Babbo with a wide grin. The man stroked Babbo slowly and the man purred with each stroke. Alviss shivered.  
    “Hello Darling.” He hissed, “We’re finally together again. Why would you abandon us darling?”  
    “Hands off me!” Babbo shouted. “Do I even know you?” The man stopped stroking Babbo.  
    “Peta said he was different, we thought he lied. Phantom said you were used by some boy and we thought he lied. Then we saw you being used by that boy yesterday beating up our brethren.” The man monologued. “You really wouldn’t abandon us would you Darling?”  
    “Of course he di-” Ginta started.  
    “Silence thief!” The man shrieked, making Ginta jump back. “We wanna hear our Darling!”  
    “Alviss, who the hell is this creep?” Nanashi whispered.  
    “He’s a rook from the Chess. From what I remembered he had an unhealthy obsession with rare ärms. Babbo in particular.” Alviss whispered back. “He tended to praise Babbo for all of Phantom’s victories in the war games. And he hasn’t gotten the memo about Babbo.”  
    “And Phantom hasn’t gotten rid of him?”  
    “Apparently.”  
    “Yes I really would abandon the Chess!” Babbo shouted. “Now it may be due to my amnesia but I don’t remember you at all Mister …”  
    “If it helps we called him “Darling.”” Alviss called.  
    “He has a name.” Said the man looking straight at Team Mär. “It has just been a long time since he’s used it. What was it again?” He then turned his head to the side “You fool! Now is not the time too look over that issue! We must bring back our Darling! Our Darling!” His head then snapped down. “My name is Jason!” He then shouted. “That’s something you two can’t take from me!” He then looked up and rolled his eyes “What are you doing here? We thought we disposed of you a long time ago. We’ll take care of you later.” His attention turned back to Babbo. “Now as you were saying Darling?”  
    “What the hell was that?” Jack shrieked.  
    “I don’t know.” Said Alviss. “I don’t think any previous Cross Guard member has seen this. We’ve only seen the man whose obsessed with Babbo.”  
    “I don’t know you.” Babbo stated flatly.  
    “You lie Darling right? Right?”  
    “I’m not lying. I don’t know you.”  
    “No … no … Darling knew us. Yes … yes … Darling indeed knew us. Yes … something is wrong …” “Jason” then threw his arms up in the air shouting “Brainwashing! Brainwashing! Yes you were brainwashed Darling!” He then got into Babbo’s face.  
    “Hey back off!” Ginta shouted.  
    “What the hell are you doing get away from me you scoundrel!” Babbo shouted.  
    “Who dares brainwash you Darling?” “Jason” screeched. “Who dares?”  
    “He’s not brainwashed!” Ginta shouted. “Jason” turned his head slowly.  
    “It was you …” He hissed. “Yes … You did this not only did you steal him but you brainwashed him!”  
    “How the hell could I brainwash him?” Ginta shouted. “I met him like that!”  
    “STOP LYING!” He screeched causing Ginta to shiver. He lunged forward to attack him, screaming.  
    “Wait.” Said an elderly voice. Everyone turned to see an elderly man with a short scruffy beard and messy hair in an old brown robe with some holes in it, bare footed, and  holding a plain walking stick. “If this is going to be an official match for the head hunt games then you will need a referee.”  
    “Who’re you?” Show asked.  
    “My name is Joseph, I’m just a wandering chess member who happened to stumble across this quarrel.” He said.  
    “Fuck off!” “Jason” hissed. “We don’t need a referee to kill the boy.”  
    “Well, I don’t want either of us to be punished by Phantom if we happen to not follow any of the rules.” Said Joseph. “Now, let the match between Ginta of Team Mär and Jason begin.”  
    “Babbo!” Ginta shouted trying to reach for him but “Jason” grabbed his neck first.  
    “Darling won’t come back to you. Yes … Darling won’t come back to you. Yes ...” “Jason” said repeatedly as he choked the boy.  
    “Ginta!” Snow shouted about to run forward when Alviss grabbed her wrist.  
    “Wait.” Alviss said. Snow released herself from his grip and rubbed her wrist and turned her attention back to the match. Babbo hopped up and knocked “Jason” in the head making him let go of Ginta’s neck to grab his head. Ginta fell to his knees gasping and coughing.  
    “Ginta! Are you all right?” Babbo asked.  
    “Yeah … I’ll be fine.” Ginta said rubbing the finger marks around his neck. Jack and Snow sighed with relief.  
    “I’m sorry …” They heard Jason say. “I’m so sorry … I’m sorry …” The man was on his knees with his hands covering his ears repeating “I’m sorry.” He started weeping as he continued to apologize.  
    “Ginta! Now’s your chance!” Nanashi shouted. Ginta ignored him. “Did you hear me?”  
    “I heard you. I decided not to do it.” Ginta replied. “It’s not fair to beat your opponent when they’re down. I’m waiting until he’s regained the fighting spirit.” Jason soon snapped back to one of his crazy personalities. He charged at Ginta.  
    “Babbo version 1a! Hammer ärm!” Ginta shouted. Babbo turned into a boxing glove looking weapon on his left hand.  
    “Nature ärm! Sharpen!” “Jason” shouted, though nothing seemed to happen as he ran towards Ginta. When he got close enough Ginta tried to punch him but he dodged and chomped onto Ginta’s free arm, just above the wrist, making him bleed.  
    “AUGH!” Ginta screamed.  
    “So that’s what he did.” Dorothy muttered.  
    “What?” Jack asked.  
    “He used that ärm to sharpen his teeth, since normally it would be difficult for a single bite to pierce the skin. I mean under normal circumstances the worse you’d get from a human would be some bite marks left behind.” She explained. Babbo turned back to normal. Ginta tried to grab hold of “Jason’s” lower jaw until he found a small opening between his arm and “Jason’s” mouth. “Jason” bit down on his arm harder and more blood oozed out of the wound. Ginta flinched but it didn’t stop him from sliding his finger into the tiny space and try to pry his mouth open. He couldn’t do it and was more successful at trying to slice off his own finger.  
    “Babbo!” Ginta shouted.  
    “I’m on it!” Babbo replied flying forward and knocking “Jason” on the head making him get off of Ginta’s arm. However he took a chunk of Ginta’s skin with him.  
    “Darling why?” He asked after he spat out some of Ginta’s skin.  
    “Ginta is my servant, and I won’t allow you to harm him.” Babbo said. “Jason” didn’t say anything after that and just stood there frozen.  
    “Jason, do you surrender?” Joseph asked. There was no reply. “Jason?” He suddenly screamed and attacked Ginta. Ginta quickly turned Babbo into his hammer ärm and blocked his scratches. He tried his best to ignore his stinging arm.  
    “Babbo Version 2!” He quickly shouted. Babbo turned into a gun looking weapon and started shooting bubbles that look like his face.  
    “What is this?” “Jason” shouted. “What did you do to Darling? Darling didn’t do this before!” The bubbles exploded sending “Jason” straight into a tree. Joseph looked at “Jason” for a few seconds.  
    “Ginta wins!” He announced.  
    “No!” “Jason” shouted. “It is not over! We won’t rest until Darling is back!”  
    “You’ve been down for far too long.” Said Joseph. “We need to get back.” He grabbed “Jason” and used a dimension ärm to teleport away.  
    “Ginta!” Snow called running up to him. She grabbed his injured arm and used her Holy ärm to heal it. The bleeding stopped and skin started to return to the bite wound. However, it left a scar.  
    “Thanks Snow.” He replied. “Everyone let’s get going.” Team Mär packed up their campsite and started walking. When night came they set up camp again but this time they were near the Cross Guard.  
    “Well well Alviss you got some nerve to show your face around here.” Said a young man dressed in a sleeveless shirt and baggy pants similarly to how Alan dressed six years ago. “After deserting us why would you come back.”  
    “This wasn’t intentional Richard.” Alviss growled. “Besides it’s not like I became a traitor and joined the Chess.”  
    “Wait wait wait.” Jack interrupted. “You weren’t sent to us on some orders?”  
    “You would find out eventually.” Alviss shrugged. “No I wasn’t sent out on orders, I came to you on my own accord for my own reasons.”  
    “Well whatever.” Richard growled, “Elizabeth, Gaira and all the other grownups might have been fine with it but that doesn’t give you any excuse to abandon us! I might have to take some disciplinary measures.”  
    “If you’re trying to mimic Alan you’re doing a poor job at it.” Alviss smirked.  
    “Grr why you…” Richard growled again.  
    “Well well, nice to see you again Kiddo.” Said Elizabeth walking up to the group. “See you’ve made some new friends Richard.”  
    “Friends? Never!” Richard huffed.  
    “Aw come on Richy you won’t get through life with that attitude, and I could say the same about you Kiddo.” She said, Alviss mumbled something under his breath. “By the way Team Kiddy, saw your match yesterday and I gotta say you’ve practically beaten the chess in record time.”  
    “Team Kiddy? Why I’d never…” Babbo growled.  
    “Don’t bother.” Alviss sighed, “Once she’s come up with a nickname for you she’s gonna stick with it.”  
    “Damn straight.” She stated with pride. “By the way Kiddo, Old number three wants to talk to you about something.”  
    “Yes mam.” He said getting up and leaving the group.  
    “Hmph, what did he do to get Gaira’s attention.” Richard mumbled.  
    “I heard that within the last six years he’s become Gaira’s top student or something like that.” Elizabeth shrugged.  
    “Big whoop, he’s the youngest one in the cross guard, he should be listening to us. I don’t care if Gaira gives him validation he should be listening to me- I mean us!” Richard huffed.  
    “Why am I detecting some jealousy here?” Dorothy giggled.  
    “I’m not jealous!” Richard snapped, he left fuming.  
    “Ah don’t mind him, he’s always yearning for attention.” Elizabeth sighed.  
    “Miss Elizabeth, I don’t think I’ve seen you fight in the War Games.” Said Edward.  
    “Well I kinda wasn’t allowed Doggy, if you remember many members were against women and children fighting. However, since the Chess were letting them fight they ultimately decided that it would be hypocritical if we didn’t let them fight.” She explained. “Even then there are some supporters that didn’t show up to the headhunt games. Like a good friend of mine.” She then looked down to the ground. “I hope she’ll all right. Though it’s kind of a shame that some of our members died because they were left defenseless due to some ärm being stolen.”  
    “What?” Ginta exclaimed “Why?”  
    “It might have something to with that ‘anything goes’ rule.” Elizabeth shrugged. At the same time Alviss approached Gaira.  
    “Elizabeth said you needed to speak to me.” He said.  
    “Yes, it’s about that boy Ginta.” Gaira replied.  
    “What about him?”  
    “He’s not very experienced in hand to hand combat is he?”  
    “No, not really, he’s kinda dependent on using Babbo.” Alviss sighed.  
    “I see.”  
    “Why’d you ask?”  
    “Because it’s a concern, at least for your team, we all saw him almost get strangled to death and he had a hard time fighting without Babbo.” Gaira pointed out. “When Dana was alive he could handle the chess without his ärm or using up too much magical energy. From what I’ve seen of Ginta it doesn’t look pretty. He needs more proper training if he’s going to survive and keep Team Mär from getting disqualified.”  
    “Your point is?”  
    “You’re going to train him.” Said Gaira flatly.  
    “What? No way.” Alviss huffed.  
    “I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice, that’s an order.”  
    “Fine…” Alviss grumbled.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Though there are quite a bit of OCs in here, can you guess what they're based off of? Also has it bothered anyone else that the Chess are free to fight with women and children but when anyone else does it it's considered as pathetic? I mean when team Mär went to take the test they weren't taken seriously and when they were the only seven to pass the damn test Pozun was all like "For shame man." Does it bother anyone else or am I reading too much into this?


	4. In the meantime

Chapter 4: In the Meantime  
  
    Back on Earth, Koyuki went too school as usual, with the police investigating the incident from a few weeks ago, long after the news stopped reporting on it. They have been asking the students about Ginta’s disappearance. The students in Yazawa’s class, including Koyuki herself have told the police the same thing, the room suddenly went dark and a door popped out, Ginta went through it and then he disappeared. Students in nearby classrooms said that they saw Yazawa’s class outside of their class room freaking out for some reason. Koyuki, however, gave the extra mile about Ginta’s whereabouts. She told authorities that she’d been having dreams about Ginta in a place called Mär Heaven and about his exploits. She told how he saved her from being encased in ice and training with him in the training gates and so on. She even told them about the Headhunt games. However, the officers found them to be charming stories and nothing more. Today she told authorities about Jason and how he almost killed Ginta and meeting the Cross Guard members, Richard and Elizabeth.  
    “Look kid,” said one of the officers, “You’re probably having some anxiety dreams concerning your friend. We’re still investigating the event and we’re not getting any leads.”  
    “But it’s all true!” Koyuki claimed.  
    “Dreams may feel real, but in the end they’re just dreams kid.” The officer brushed off.  
    “But-”Koyuki began.  
    “Hold on.” Said another officer, a pale woman with long black hair, grey eyes and dark circles under those eyes. “What’s your name miss?”  
    “What are you doing Himura?” Her fellow officer asked.  
    “Just talking, what does it look like?” She said back.  
    “Ah … Koyuki.” Koyuki responded.  
    “Right, Koyuki, may I speak with you after your classes?” The woman asked. Koyuki hesitated, “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna do anything I just want to ask you a few questions.”  
    “Um … sure.” Said Koyuki, “Can you meet me here?” She gave Officer Himura a piece of paper with an address on it. Officer Himura smirked.  
    “All right, I’ll meet you there as soon as I’m done.”  
    Hours later, after classes, Koyuki went to Ginta’s apartment, where his mother just finished a new section for her latest book.  
    “Hey Koyuki.” She greeted. “Come in.” Koyuki stepped into the apartment and pulled out her note book.  
    “I took notes for Ginta, again.” She said.  
    “That’s nice of you.” Ginta’s mother replied, “Speaking of which, did you see him again?”  
    “Yep.” Koyuki nodded. “But this time there was this guy who practically lusted after Babbo, and he tried to kill Ginta. However he had like one distinct personality that didn’t want Babbo and Ginta ended up surviving.” Ginta’s mother sat there frozen, not sure what to say. “On the up side we met up with the Cross Guard and talked to a couple of members.” Said Koyuki trying to get her mind off Ginta’s near death experience. She then went into detail about Richard and Elizabeth. After a while the two heard a knock on the door. Ginta’s mother got up and answered it. When she opened it, the officer from earlier was standing there, except in a sweatshirt and jeans. The officer’s mouth dropped.  
    “Can I help you with anything?” Ginta’s mother asked.  
    “Oh my god.” The officer muttered. “Y-you’re Shirori Toramizu!”  
    “Yes, and you are …?” Ginta’s mother asked.  
    “Eh- keeeeeeeee…” The officer began trying to make out words with the random sounds she made until she finally spat out. “Kazue Himura! I-I-I-I’m a big fan of yours!”  
    “ I can tell.” Shiori said dryly.  
    “I-it’s an honor to meet you!” Kazue then got onto her knees. “I am so sorry we weren’t able to find your son!”  
    “Oh Officer Himura, right? You wanted to talk didn’t you?” Said Koyuki. Kazue was left speechless, blushing. She then got off her knees and brushed herself off.  
    “Ah, right.” She said regaining her composure. “As I said, we weren’t able to find your son but for the last few weeks Koyuki here has been laying claims that your son-”  
    “Is in a fairytale world? Yes I know.” Shiori said bluntly.  
    “Ah,” Said Kazue, “Then I don’t need to go over any details with you. My superiors think that a story like that is a load of bullshit, while I think transported to a fairytale world seems to make the most logical sense than any of the theories my colleagues have come up with. Like elaborate kidnapping through a gas leak or something like that. Anyway this is an independent investigation of mine that my coworkers don’t know about, kinda.”  
    “Kinda?” Shiori asked.  
    “I mostly want to hear about this Mär Heaven place. However, it sounds very similar to your husband’s disappearance right down to him disappearing in a public place. Plus it sounds interesting.” Kazue shrugged, she then turned her attention to Koyuki. “Now Koyuki, how long have you been having those dreams?”  
    “As long as I could remember.” Koyuki replied, “I’m a princess of a large kingdom in Mär Heaven after all.”  
    “I see. When did you start seeing Ginta in that world?”  
    “About ten days or so after he said he arrived in Mär Heaven, after saving me from being encased in ice.”  
    “Wait … You were encased in ICE?” Kazue shouted.  
    “Yeah I was running from my stepmother and as a last resort I froze myself until my servant, Ed, could save me, but Ginta saved me instead.”  
    “Didn’t that come with any severe injury or something like that?”  
    “… No ...”  
    “Anyway, how did Ginta say he got there?”  
    “While training he said something about a man named Alviss summoning him.”  
    “Is there any reason?”  
    “Apparently, since that world is on the brink of war Alviss thought that he may need someone from outside of Mär Heaven to kill the leader of the group terrorizing the world, the Chess Pieces. Since it worked before.”  
    “Hold on, What do you mean by “before?” Did a terrorist group attacking the world happen and a person from a different world got summoned just to stop them?” Kazue asked.  
    “Yep.”  
    “Wow … Anyway, is there anything special about other worlders that the citizens can’t do on their own?”  
    “Well in Ginta’s case he ended up as a symbol of hope.”  
    “I see.” Said Kazue, “That will be all for today.” She turned to Shiori, “Sorry to have bothered you.”  
    “Ah, not at all.” Shiori dismissed. “I’m glad that you’re taking this extra effort to find out where my son is.” Kazue bowed and left. She then turned back to Koyuki. “Hey Koyuki, what happened during the battle?”  
    “Well we all woke up when we heard Babbo screaming...” Said Koyuki, she went on the explain Jason’s antics and how Ginta managed to fair against the man. Shiori smiled and listened intently to Koyuki’s tale.  
    When Koyuki got home she went to bed, excited for sleep thinking _‘What adventures will Me and Ginta have tonight?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah just a filler chapter concerning Koyuki back on Earth, these might pop up every now and again. Though seriously how did Ginta's disappearance not catch any media attention? I mean for god's sake the students were freaking out when they saw the Gate Keeper Clown which would have caught some attention from neighboring classrooms. Also a student that just disappears out of thin air should catch some sort of police attention.


	5. Secret Training Begins

Chapter 5: Secret Training Begins  
  
 _A young Alviss went up to Danna looking at a piece of paper. He was smiling, but Alviss noticed a sad look in his eyes._  
 _“Danna!” he called._  
 _Danna snapped back to his senses and said, “Oh hey Alviss, do you need something?”_  
 _“Alan and Gaira are looking for you. They said something about training.” Alviss explained. “What are you looking at?”_  
 _“Oh this?” Danna replied holding out the paper that had a hyper realistic picture of himself along with a woman and a young boy. “This is a photograph, a picture of usually people that is created through a device called a camera. We use these to keep our memories.”_  
 _“That’s strange.” Alviss commented._  
 _“I guess it sort of is when you’re explaining it to someone.” Danna laughed._  
 _“What does this camera do anyway?”_  
 _“To be honest I’m no specialist in these things. It has something to do with the film inside and that’s as much as I can remember.”_  
 _“So who’s in the picture?” Alviss asked._  
 _“My wife and son.” Said Danna._  
    Alviss woke up right at sunrise. He moaned and put his hand to his forehead.  
    ‘Why would I remember that now?’ He thought. He this looked over to a still sleeping Ginta and then to the Cross Guard who just finished packing their things and were about to leave. The exception being a man with blue hair, still asleep. ‘Of course.’ He thought. He got up and walked over to the sleeping man.  
    “Hey, get up.” He whispered shaking him. He then shook him harder with no avail. “I don’t wanna do this but you leave me no choice.” He muttered, he then kicked the man.  
    “Ow!” The man shouted, surprisingly not waking up team Mär. “Jeez Alviss, do you have to kick me so hard?”  
    “You would’ve be left behind if I didn’t.” Alviss said bluntly.  
    “Shit!” The man exclaimed looking around then slapping his stuff together and running to a cart.  
    “I should thank you for that.” He heard a voice, he turned to see Robert walking up to him. “I would’ve kicked him awake if you hadn’t. Though I’m not much for physical strength so I’ll most likely end up hurting myself before hand.” He laughed.  
    “You’re not that weak. You survived the first day’s pawn assault. If you could do that then you could certainly wake Peter.” Said Alviss.  
    “Is that so?”  
    “I’ve been doing that since I was ten.”  
    “Oh really.” Robert laughed. “Getting outclassed by a ten year old, boy I’m pathetic.”  
    “Don’t call yourself that!” Alviss snapped back. “You got your fire ärm from Elizabeth didn’t you? That should prove that you’re strong enough to use it!”  
    “Hey calm down, I was mostly joking.” He said. “You know this is the first time I’ve seen you care. I didn’t believe Elizabeth when she said that you hold your comrades close.”  
    “You just don’t know me all that well.” Said Alviss. “I don’t really blame you, since we’ve hardly had a simple conversation.”  
    “That’s true.” Robert shrugged. “Well, I have to get going, so see you around kiddo.”  
    “Yeah.” Said Alviss as Robert walked away. “Oh and Robert, don’t die.” Robert looked back and smiled.  
    “Don’t worry, I’ll survive till the end of the Headhunt Games.” He said before walking off with the rest of the Cross Guard. He then walked over to Ginta.  
    “Hey.” He said in a deadpan voice while shaking him. “Hey!” He repeated.  
    “What?” Ginta moaned.  
    “Get up.” He ordered.  
    “What are we leaving already?”  
    “No, I’d like to talk to you.” Alviss said grabbing him by the shoulder. “Come on.”  
    “Ow! Alviss! What the hell are you doing?” Ginta complained as Alviss dragged him along. He got up and released himself from Alviss’s grip.  
    “What the hell do you want to talk about?” asked Ginta irritated.  
    “It’s about yesterday’s match.”  
    “What about it?”  
    “For one you seem too dependent on Babbo.” Said Alviss.  
    “What no I wasn’t!” Ginta denied.  
    “How come you seemed to struggle a lot when Babbo wasn’t in your hand, and you received some injuries?” Alviss asked. Ginta hesitated to answer and grabbed his bite scar. “My point exactly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to use a weapon to defeat an enemy, but if you constantly rely on your weapon you’d be pinned as defenseless without it. That dependancy becomes a concern when you don’t know basic hand to hand combat and self defense.”  
    “Gee, thanks.” Said Ginta becoming defensive. “So I suck at hand to hand combat. Big deal.”  
    “Well I wouldn’t pass it off so lightly if I were you. In fact, I would take it very seriously.” Said Alviss.  
    “Well what are you going to do about it?” Ginta challenged.  
    “Train you.” Alviss replied.  
    “What? How?” Ginta exclaimed.  
    “Not through the training gate. We don’t have that much time since we’re constantly on the move. Maybe when we rest at a town but not now.” Said Alviss.  
    “So what are you going to do?”  
    “Well, something more hands on.” Said Alviss. “Let’s start with the basics.” He then swooped behind him and put him in a headlock.  
    “Hey! Alviss! What the hell are you doing?” Ginta shouted.  
    “Teaching you.” He said bluntly.  
    “How the hell is this teaching me?” Ginta shouted back.  
    “The headlock I put you in is not lethal so you can take your time to figure out how to escape. Then we’ll work on the timing.”  
    “You’re insane!” Ginta growled trying to slip his head out of Alviss’s headlock.  
    “You’re not gonna get out that way.” Alviss taunted.  
    “Screw you!”  
    “You know you have a couple of ways of getting out. I suggest you get creative.”  
    “Why you …” Ginta growled kicking Alviss’s shin. Alviss cringed then let go.  
    “That’s not how you would do it.” Said Alviss.  
    “Then how do you get out of a choke hold?” Ginta asked.  
    “There are a couple of ways.” Said Alviss. “One, you can straighten yourself out and try to slam your attacker against the wall or part of the landscape. Another involves grabbing the attacker’s groin and then pushing your attacker back. If all else fails you could try biting. The important thing is to not let your attacker cut off your air supply.”  
    “Care to show an example?” Ginta asked. Alviss hesitated to reply. Nearby Bell watched and heard the whole thing she flew over when Alviss struggled to come up with an answer.  
    “I have an idea.” She said. “You two just help me grab some materials.”  
    “What do you need Bell?” Alviss asked.  
    “What do you have in mind?” Ginta asked.  
    “You’ll see.” The fairy grinned. “I’m gonna need several big pieces of wood, vine and either a gourd or a round rock.” She instructed. “Though you could use Babbo.” She joked.  
    “No. he’ll complain.” Said Ginta.  
    “Alviss! Ginta! We need to get going?” They heard Snow call. The three rushed back to the campsite.  
    “Just what were you two doing?” Jack asked.  
    “It’s a secret.” Alviss replied.  
    “What?” Ginta whispered.  
    “Just go with it.” Alviss whispered back.  
    “I wonder if it has something to do with yesterday.” They heard a man with dark skin and tied back hair with scars on his face wearing a no sleeved shirt, pants and a long coat.  
    “Alan?” Alviss shouted.  
    “Ah, hey old man! It’s been a while.” Ginta greeted.  
    “Would’ve been here sooner if the dog didn’t have trouble sleeping.” Stated Alan.  
    “I still can’t believe that the dog is an old man.” Nanashi muttered.  
    “You’ll get used to it, unfortunately.” Said Snow. “Unless you have a holy ärm you won’t be seeing human Ed for three days after tonight.”  
    “Yes it’s unfortunate now can we get going?” Dorothy asked impatiently.  
    “All right! We’re leaving!” Snow replied. Team Mär walked a sizable distance, which was made easier since the Chess didn’t seem to bother them that day all the while Ginta and Alviss were collecting the items Bell asked for, though if she said: “I need something bigger (or smaller)” it was usually thrown back and replaced with something else. The boys carried the all of the supplies.  
    “What are you gonna do with this?” Alviss asked.  
    “You’ll see.” Said Bell as she started tying some vines onto wood while they traveled.  
    “You sure we shouldn’t stop?” Ginta asked the fairy  
    “I’m sure.” She replied. Then the group came across a three on three battle between Chess rooks and three people from and independent party. The Chess fighters contained two men and a woman, all three used basic weapon ärms like spears and swords. The independent party on the other hand also had two men and a woman. The woman had brown hair that was braided while the top of her head was covered by a bandana. She wore a very low cut shirt revealing a good portion of her breasts under a thick brown jacket that had one button in the middle along with black baggy pants and brown boots. The Chess rook she was fighting was trembling with his sword in hand while she attacked with a pair of curved knives. The Chess was defending poorly against her strikes and receive her slashes. One of the men had his dirty blonde hair tied back and dressed in similar attire as the woman, except that his shirt was all the way buttoned up and his jacket was a navy blue long coat and he had brown pants and black boots. He wielded a cross bow that he constantly reloaded and shot at his opponent who tended to move around, making his aim suffer. The third was a man who had short red hair with bangs completely covering his fore head. He wore leather armor though the full body suit underneath was visible in certain angles. He wielded two swords, one shorter than the other. He twirled them around making his movements almost appear like dancing as he blocked the blows from his opponents. The woman with the low cut shirt slashed her opponent through the chest, almost instantly killing him, she ten turned to Team MÄR.  
    “Well aren’t you gonna help?” She offered, “Anything goes after all.”  
    “You three look like you have it handled.” Alan remarked just as the blonde man shot his opponent through the leg. The Chess member fell down to her knee then the blonde reloaded his crossbow and shot the arrow through her head.  
    “Nice one Ben.” Remarked the woman.  
    “I guess, Jamie, but it’s a real shame we couldn’t settle any differences over some cheese.” The man known as Ben replied, his voice sounding androgynous.  
    “Should we help him?” Jamie asked.  
    “He’ll be fine, can we go?”  
    “You just want to head to town and get some cheese right?”  
    “Oh yes, screw the guy that ends up helping you by making the odds more even, just so you can go get some god damn cheese!” Said the other man dryly as he blocked another blow from his opponent. “The least you two can do is help out a fellow man!”  
    “Sorry dude, we’re the wrong type of people you should trust with that.” Jamie laughed.  
    “That’s dirty!” Ginta shouted. Jamie looked over to him.  
    “It’s how we have to fight kid, we can’t exactly be fair when the rules of the game are asking for complete anarchy.” She replied, she didn’t bother with Ginta anymore and turned to her companion. “Let’s go Ben.” The two left  
    “Wait-” Ginta began.  
    “Forget about them Ginta.” Said Alviss just as the third man killed his opponent. He collapsed from exhaustion.  
    “You’ve gotten rusty haven’t you Diarmuid?” Said Alan smirking.  
    “I guess.” The man laughed. “And I’m supposed to be a body guard, kinda sad isn’t it?”  
    “You know this guy Old man?” Ginta asked.  
    “Yeah, he was part of the cross guard until he got a severe injury keeping from participating further in the war games.” Alan explained.  
    “Yeah got out before the games even got good.” Diarmuid laughed. “Anyway I should get going, see you around.”  
    “See ya, we should catch up sometime.” Said Alan as Diarmuid parted ways with them. Later after covering more distance team Mär set up camp for the night and Bell propped up her little project, a wooden training dummy that was propped up by a single stick and had arms of wood and vine dangling at its sides.  
    “Ta-daaaaah!” She announced showing off the dummy.  
    “So that’s why you needed all that wood for.” Ginta muttered.  
    “Yep since Alviss is going to do some secret training with you I’d figure that you could use an aid to help that along.” She grinned.  
    “Thanks Bell. You’re a life saver.” Said Alviss with a grin on his face.  
    “Oh Al, you’re making me blush!” She giggled.  
    “Now then.” Said Alviss turning to Ginta, “Shall we continue where we left off?”  
  
    At Lestava castle a man with slicked back brown hair wearing a long coat over a nice shirt and pants as well as a pair of boots leaned against the wall muttering to himself about the day’s losses. A woman with long black hair wearing a black sleeveless dress with the skirt over a petticoat approached him. She wore several cross decorations in her hair and on her dress along with red ribbons. Her legs were exposed and she wore little black heels with red ribbons tied around the ankles. Both people wore the earrings of a bishop.  
    “Complaining to yourself again Iago?” She smirked.  
    “Oh it’s you Mary.” He moaned. “What do you want?”  
    “Not much.” She said. “Just want to hear you rant again about your deepest desire to overthrow the Chess.”  
    “But the Chess would be so much better off if I were in charge!” Iago snapped back. “If I were the head knight we would’ve gotten the knights dispatched already and eliminated all opposition! We also wouldn’t have so many casualties and get this war over with!”  
    “I don’t know I think it’s more fun to wait. This way my dear Beth gets to get in on the action as her latest partners get their entrails removed.” Mary said talking with a blush and a giggle.  
    “Fool.” Iago muttered. “You don’t understand the qualities of leadership. If you had more interest in that instead of lusting after that cross guard woman we would make the perfect partnership and gotten rid of Phantom!”  
    “Oh you wouldn’t want me as a partner dear Iago, I would make a royal mess of things.” She smirked. It was around that time where the mentally unstable rook, Jason, came stumbling in. He had dark circles under his eyes and he looked down right horrified. “Hey you, Rook!” Mary called. “Which one are you now, the stinker, sneaker or the third wheel?”  
    “What?” Jason asked softly looking over to her.  
    “Oh so you must be the third wheel.”  
    “Third wheel? What are you talking about? Who are you and what happened?” He asked growing more panicked. “That is none of your concern.” He said to himself. “You help us get Darling back then we’ll leave you alone. But we has been disqualified, remember? Doesn’t matter! We’ll get Darling back from that thief!”  
    “Enough!” Iago shouted. “How about this, if you, all of you help me over throw Phantom then I’ll get you Babbo.”  
    “You gots yourself a deal!” Said one of Jason’s personalities shaking Iago’s hand.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the addition of some new OCs now can you guess their origins?


	6. The First Checkpoint Reached

Chapter 6: The first check point reached

Team Mär woke to a shrill sound in the middle of the night. Everyone jolted up and looked around them.

“What the hell was that?” Nanashi shouted.

“Ah! Look up there!” Ed shouted pointing at the moon. A group of three approached the pawn at the first checkpoint and they showed their seal. The pawn seemed to have asked them for their map and marked it in ink.

“I can’t believe it!” Jack exclaimed. “Someone already beat us to the first checkpoint? It’s only been three days since this started!”

“I’m willing to bet that they’ve managed to avoid several Chess fights, mainly because they were preoccupied with larger groups like ours.” Alviss shrugged.

“Then why the hell are they in this race?” Ginta questioned. “If they’re unwilling to fight the Chess they might as well not be here! I mean one of the rules says that you have to engage the Chess in a fight if you run into them!”

“There isn’t exactly a rule against avoiding fights if you notice Chess members engaged in another one.” Said Alviss. Ginta looked away and mumbled to himself Snow and Babbo looked over to him.

“You think he’s still upset about Diarmuid getting ditched by Jamie and Ben?” Babbo asked.

“I don’t know, I think it’s a combination of things.” Snow whispered.

“Like that and the fact that everyone keeps mentioning that he nearly got strangled to death by an insane rook?”

“Something like that.” Snow shrugged. They then heard a rustling behind them.

“Come out!” Babbo shouted, which caused everyone else to turn. They heard more rustling and Snow touched the ground and used her nature ärm to freeze the thing moving around. They then heard a yelp. Team Mär ran to the place where they heard the yelp to see the boy around Ginta’s that was seen choking a pawn on the first day of combat with a leg frozen. Alviss got close to the boy and looked at the rings and bracelet on one of the boy’s hands as the boy shuffled his hair back over his nose and left eye.

“So you’re the Cross Guard’s little thief.” He said.

“Yeah what about it?” The boy growled glaring at him.

“Hey Al, what’s this all about?” Nanashi asked.

“This boy stole some ärm from some Cross Guard members, and some of them would be alive if he hadn’t done so.” Alviss explained.

“Hey! There’s no rule against stealing other people’s ärm!” The boy argued. “Besides it’s those soldier’s fault for relying too much on a single ärm that they end up dying without it.”

“That’s still no excuse for just stealing someone’s ärm!” Alviss argue back.

“Are you kidding? That’s the perfect excuse! Besides six rules there’s nothing stopping us from creating total anarchy! I just decided to make the most of it!”

“So you’re willing to go as low as the Chess in this race?”

“Oh don’t compare me to them! I just stole some ärm from the Cross Guard I didn’t have any intentions of killing anyone that wasn’t Chess. Besides everyone who took part in this thing are killing Chess members left and right.”

“Oh my god, will both of you shut up!” Dorothy interrupted. “Yeah you stole some ärm and yes if that happened to kill any of my former teammates I would be pissed, but it is late and I’m tired so I’d rather get this argument resolved in the morning.” Alviss and the boy turned away from each other with a “hmph.”

“Hey Snow, the Cross Guard are basically soldiers right?” Ginta whispered.

“Yeah they are, why’d you ask?” She asked back.

“Isn’t it technically illegal to steal from soldiers?”

“Yes it is.” She replied.

“Thanks Snow.” Ginta said with a smile then he turned to the boy. “Hey, what’s your name?” Both the boy and Alviss looked at him confused.

“Uh … Sterling.” The boy replied.

“Sterling, huh?” Said Ginta. “Are you aware that what you’re doing is technically illegal?”

“Not in this setting.” Said Sterling.

“Well not exactly,” Said Ginta. “You see even though one of the rules is ‘anything goes’ that literally means anything goes.”

“Yes we know this.” Sterling growled. “What are you getting at?”

“Even though the rules imply that you can technically break the law the rules also don’t stop us from enforcing the law.” Ginta explained.

“Oh, meaning that we can arrest you and it would still be within the game’s rules.” Said Snow.

“Not to be a downer but there’s no law enforcement until the checkpoint and it’s likely that he’ll run off before that.” Jack pointed out.

“Oh don’t worry, I have an idea for that.” Said Ginta. “He’ll be our “prisoner” until soldiers at the checkpoint figure out what to do with him.”

“What?” Everyone else exclaimed.

“Are you insane?” Alviss questioned.

“Yeah I mean how exactly are we gonna keep him in line and make sure he doesn’t run off?” Nanashi questioned.

“Nightly watches until we get to the first checkpoint. If he tries to escape pin him down.” Said Ginta with a cold look in his eyes. “Anything else?”

“Yeah when the hell did you suddenly turn all vigilanti?” Dorothy asked.

“What?” Ginta questioned not looking as cold as before. “I thought I would try to be a good leader by cracking down on people that can hurt us.”

“I was just going by the rules!” Sterling tried to defend. “And it’s not like I was going to steal from you guys anyway.”

“Then how come you were sneaking around?” Snow asked. Sterling hesitated and blushed a little.

“I … I was traveling.” He said quickly. “I thought I would try to gain a lead on some of the other teams by traveling at night when the Chess wouldn’t be attacking.”

“Oh yeah right.” Said Alviss.

“I’m serious!” Sterling shouted back.

“Fine whatever.” Said Babbo. “We’re all tired and would like to get back to sleep. Alviss you can take the first watch and Snow can you please unfreeze his leg?”

“Can you lend me the fire ärm for a bit?” She asked Ed. The dog gave her a nature ärm that looked similar to her own. She aimed the ärm at the frozen leg and concentrated her magical energy to release a flame from the ärm and thawing the leg. She then gave the ärm back to Ed. Ginta went up to Sterling and helped him up. The boy flinched as he got up, he nearly collapsed on the leg that was frozen but Ginta caught him.

“Hey! Are you all right?” Ginta asked.

“Fine.” Sterling grunted trying to get up on his leg.

“Ginta can you carry him back to camp, I’m afraid I might have damaged his leg.” Said Snow.

“What?” Ginta and Sterling questioned.

“Yeah … my ärm can sometimes give people frostbite if I freeze them.” She explained briefly.

“Wouldn’t that mean that you managed to give yourself frostbite?” Jack asked.

“No! Not at all! I mean if I gave myself frostbite what kind of ice user would I be? A dumb one of course!” Snow answered flustered. “Anyway, when we get back to camp I’ll heal his leg and we can keep watch sound good?”

“Yeah sounds great.” Said Ginta.

“Wait I don’t get any say in this?” Sterling wondered.

“No not really.” Stated Alviss.

Around the same time the Chess Pieces also saw the first checkpoint being reached.

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting anyone to reach the first checkpoint so soon.” Said Phantom.

“Should we dispatch the Bishops now sir or should we wait until the second checkpoint with the Knights?” His right hand man, Peta, questioned.

“Well we’ve managed to lose quite a bit of Pawns and Rooks to the Cross guard and other parties during these last few days. We’ll run out if we wait until the second checkpoint, so yes, we’ll release the bishops.” Phantom replied.

“Very well, which ones do you want to release first?”

“How about the Rodokins, they might not all be Bishops but they should be good enough to take care of some of the independent parties.” Phantom smirked.

“Very well, I’ll go tell them.” Said Peta with a bow. In another part of the castle, news of the first checkpoint was spreading fast and Iago was leaning against the walls listening in on some of the bishops.

 _‘From the looks of it we might end up getting dispatched as early as the day after tomorrow.’_ Iago thought. _‘Dammit, not enough time to make my move. Okay okay, calm down Iago you can still manage to overthrow Phantom, you just need to-’_

“Hey Iago! we have a bone to pick with you!” Interrupted a voice. He turned to see a man with shaggy brown hair, a mask covering half of his face wearing an open purple shirt and black pants.

“What is it Saturn?” He moaned.

“We’re getting tired of waiting for you to put the plan into motion and it doesn’t help that you Bishops are going to be on the battlefield soon. So what’s taking so long?” Saturn complained.

“The first check point being reached threw the plan off schedule so I’m working on a way to put the plan into motion sooner.” He explained. “Stall as much as you can got that?”

“Oh screw you! We don’t have to take orders from anyone!” Saturn rebelled. Iago’s eye’s narrowed and he grabbed a hold of Saturn’s neck and started squeezing it. Saturn suffocated.

“Now listen here. In order for this to work I’m going to need full cooperation from everyone I’ve made a deal with and if anyone decides to rebel the whole operation will fall apart, and I will have to punish you understand?” He growled.

“Y-yes!” Saturn gasped. Iago let go to leave Saturn coughing.

“Now will you and your little group stall others from going to the first checkpoint or do I need to repeat what happened a moment ago?”

“I’ll tell the others.” Said Saturn walking away.

 _‘Damn I’m gonna need to make my move now before I get onto the battlefield!’_ He thought he then started walking through the halls. _‘Now where could he be?’_ He then spotted a man in a yellow robe and spiky black hair, he wore a mask over his face. “Ah Ian, how have you been?”

“What do you want?” Ian murmured turning his head.

“Not much, probably just to provide some consultation over what happened to your lover.” Said Iago with a smirk. Ian flinched.

“How do you know that?” He asked.

“Some members of the self proclaimed Ghost Chess are awfully chatty.” Iago briefly explained. Ian turned away from him, probably flustered. “Listen, I myself found it very cruel of Phantom to punish your lover for your actions.” Iago then said soothingly. “You’re young, you and your lover should be free to do foolish things and learn from them, that’s one of the beauties of life. Phantom doesn’t understand that.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I heard that once upon a time you and your lover joined the Chess because you wanted redemption and to change the world, correct?” Iago asked.

“Yeah but what does thi-” Ian began

“Now I don’t know what happened to you and your lover in the past but now you two haven’t been redeemed at all, if anything you’ve been demonized, and nothing has changed.” Iago interrupted. “ Am I correct?”

“Yes …” Ian murmured.

“Then why bother listening to Phantom any more? He’s the one that treats you like trash and gave the order to punish you by punishing your lover.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I forgive you for whatever you’ve done, and I can get your lover back.”

“Can you really?” Ian asked sounding a little hopeful.

“Of course, I can give you the name of the Chess who performed such an atrocious act so you can perform your revenge on them and I’ll get you and your lover a changed the world like you wanted.” Iago offered. “However I’m gonna need something from you.”

“I’ll do anything to get Gido back.” Said Ian sounding desperate.

“It’s simple really, all you have to do is to help me overthrow Phantom.” Said Iago. Ian was silent for a while.

“I’ll do it.” He finally said.

 _‘Now the plan’s starting to come together.’_ Iago thought with a smirk.

When morning rolled around for Team Mär they packed up camp and started moving again. They hadn’t heard the ringing of other teams reaching the first checkpoint.

“How’s your leg Sterling?” Snow asked their temporary “prisoner”.

“It’s fine.” He said briefly.

“Good, we don’t want you collapsing before we reached the checkpoint.” Said Alviss.

“So Sterling, what made you decide to fight against the Chess?” Ginta asked trying to stir up a conversation. Sterling grabbed onto his scarf.

“For my dad.” He said, Ginta raised an eyebrow and Jack’s ear twitched. “Why?” “Well six years ago my dad was protecting me and some other village kids so he said that he would come with them if they don’t harm us. So he went with the Chess and he never came home.” Sterling explained. “He’s probably dead by now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Said Ginta.

“You don’t have to be.” Said Sterling. Just then a group of eight Rooks jumped out in front of them.

“Who the hell are you?” Dorothy questioned.

“The local circus.” Ginta muttered, Snow giggled while Dorothy looked at him confused.

“We are the Zonenn Chess!” Said the girl in a skimpy blue and orange outfit with her red hair twisted up.

“We invoke fear into our enemies before we slaughter them.” Said a boy with blue hair in a bowl cut wearing glasses and his arm was bandaged up for some reason.

“Never heard of you.” Dorothy replied bluntly.

“What?” Shouted the pair.

“You’re not alone Dorothy, I don’t know who they are either.” Said Alviss with a shrug.

“Maybe you were too young to know us.” Suggested a girl in a pink frilly dress and had a mask on the side on her head.

“No, I was helping the injured Cross Guard during the last wargames. I’m pretty damn sure that there were no Zonenn Chess.” Alviss stated.

“So they’re basically new.” Said Nanashi.

“I guess they’re just rooks.” Said Alviss. The man wearing a mask that covered half his face laughed.

“I wouldn’t pass us off as just rooks.” He said, “We’re more powerful than we seem.”

“Oh? We’ll just have to see about that, don’t we?” Nanashi challened.

“Well if you youngsters are going to fight then you’re going to need a referee to oversee the match.” They heard a familiar voice say. They turned to see Joseph standing behind them.

“Ah, hey Joseph.” Ginta greeted. “Coincidence seeing you here again, you gonna referee for us again?”

“Yes, yes I am. So how are you going to fight?” Joseph asked.

“Eight on seven, to the death.” Said the masked man.

“Very well Saturn, does Team Mär agree?”

“Wait.” Said a voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no a cliff hanger? Who could that voice belong to?


	7. Vs. Zonens

Chapter 7: Vs. the Zonens

Diarmuid stood behind the team with his arms crossed.  
“Hey, how’ve you been?” Ginta asked.  
“Dandy, but before you get into your fight I was wondering if you needed an extra fighter.” He said drawing one of his swords and twirling it. “Besides, 8 on 7 isn’t exactly fair right?  
“Do what you want, it’s still not gonna save you from dying.” Saturn taunted.  
“So it’s gonna be an 8 on 8 battle to the death, right?” Joseph asked.  
“Yes.” Said Ginta.  
“Very well, begin!” Joseph ordered.  
“Jupiter!” Said Saturn turning to a big man with a face painted on his torso and wearing a bucket over his eyes.  
“Yes boss.” The man responded pulling out an ärm. “Dimension ärm: Labyrinth!” Then a series of stone walls popped up from the ground separating the eight fighters.  
“What the?” Jack shouted.  
“Babbo Version 1a: Hammer ärm!” Ginta shouted he then tried to punch the wall with his Babbo fist but when he would make a dent the wall would recover. “Dammit!” He muttered. Meanwhile Dorothy summoned her broom and tried to fly out but when she reached the opening she rammed into something and fell to the ground. She got back up and dusted herself. The group heard Saturn laugh. He then appeared in front of Ginta.  
“I hope you can all hear me because I won’t repeat this twice.” He announced. “You’re all going to die here, but if you want to live you all have to make it to the center of the labyrinth. You can’t escape from it as the walls will regenerate and there is a force field above preventing you from flying out.”  
“That explains a lot.” Dorothy muttered.  
“Also you have to fight me and my men, though you can’t exactly avoid that.” Saturn continued. “Are we clear?”  
“Crystal.” Said Ginta.  
“Very well, as you know my name is Saturn, the leader of the Zonens.” He said. “Now let’s get you out of the way, Weapon ärm: Lead scythe!” He shouted as a silver colored scythe appeared, he grabbed onto it then swung it at Ginta.  
“Version 1b: Dagger ärm!” Ginta shouted, the boxing glove quickly turned into sword blocking the scythe’s blow but it threw Ginta back.  
“Ginta are you all right?” Babbo asked.  
“I’m fine.” He muttered. “That was pretty heavy wasn’t it?”  
“Speak for yourself you’re not taking the brunt of the attack!” Babbo shouted back.  
“Sorry, hey, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ginta asked.  
“That we should get out of here then yes.” Said Babbo.  
“What’s wrong’ kid? You too scared to fight back?” Saturn taunted. Ginta didn’t answer, instead he ran towards Saturn who swung his scythe at him again. Ginta stepped to the side letting the scythe land into the ground then he made a run for it. “Son of a …” Saturn muttered trying to lift his scythe. “Get back here you brat!” Meanwhile Jack started walking through the labyrinth when the red haired girl appeared in front of him.  
“Wah!” He shouted.  
“Oh did I scare you? My bad.” She giggled.  
“I-I wasn’t scared just startled!” Jack shouted back.  
“Now now you shouldn’t shout at a lady when she’s about to slit your throat.” She teased. “My name’s Mars by the way, not that it would matter anyway.”  
“I would say the same thing.” Said Jack. “Weapon ärm: Battle shovel!” His trusty shovel appeared in his hand and he then charged at her screaming.  
“Nature ärm: Arcensheild!” She shouted then an arch of red light appeared blocking Jack. He attacked again and she blocked again. This repeated for several times until Jack swept his shovel under her legs she jumped over it. “Is that all you got?” Mars taunted.  
“Earth wave!” Jack shouted in response slamming his shovel into the ground. A quick earthquake came knocking her over, then Jack threw some seeds at the ground below her. “Earth beans!” Several vines sprouted up and wrapped around Mars. She started to struggle when Jack started running.  
“Hey! Get back here!” She shouted as she struggled. In another part of the labyrinth Sterling faced the blue haired boy.  
“It looks like I’m your opponent.” He said. “My name is Mercury by the way, not like it matters.”  
“You’re right, it doesn’t matter.” Said Sterling. “Weapon ärm: Twin blades!” A pair of curved swords appeared in his hands. He pointed one of his blades at Mercury. “Now I will get to the labyrinth’s center even if I kill you.”  
“That’s a bold move for someone who’s gonna die!” Mercury gloated. “Weapon ärm: Astale Kuspus!” Seven blades of varying shapes and sizes appeared in a ring, rotating in front of their user. Mercury pointed at Sterling who immediately got into a fighting stance. “Attack!” Mercury commanded. The blades flew at Sterling who tried his best to block all of them, those he couldn’t he dodged. Then the blades circled him and then went in for a collective attack in which Sterling jumped, dodging the attack. He then quickly withdrew his blades.  
“Fool.” Mercury smirked and ordered his blades to attack.  
“Nature ärm: Flash!” Sterling shouted and a flash of light temporarily blinded Mercury, once he regained his sight his opponent was gone. However there was a trail of blood droplets.  
“Hmph, so you think you can run rat?” He said with a grin walking down the labyrinth looking for his opponent. In another part of the labyrinth Dorothy faced off a woman with short blond hair clad in blue.  
“A witch eh? I haven’t hunted any of you in a while.” She said summoning an iron ball.  
“Hunted?” Dorothy questioned.  
“Yes I hunted witches and stole their ärm. Though I don’t really expect you to have heard of “Uranus the witch hunter” since witch hunting isn’t a well known sport. Though it really doesn’t help that you guys hardly leave your home.” She gloated.  
“That ball you have there, that a trophy?” Dorothy asked.  
“No.” She chuckled. “It’s my homing device.” The ball then suddenly grew spikes. “Weapon ärm: Lumiere Soeil!” The ball started spinning and flew towards Dorothy, she whacked it out of the way with her broom then the ball turned around and flew straight back to her so she whacked it out of the way again then it flew back to her.  
“The hell?” Dorothy growled as she whacked the ball away from her for a third time.  
“See what I mean by homing device?” Uranus asked with a chuckle. “This thing will keep attacking you until you’re dead.” The ball flew at Dorothy for about the fourth time but when Dorothy swung her broom this time she summoned a windstorm making the ball fly back and Uranus to shield herself giving Dorothy the perfect opportunity to slip away. Soon after she left the windstorm stopped and the ball started flying in the presumed direction Dorothy went. “Only a matter of time.” Uranus said to herself following her homing device. Elsewhere in the labyrinth Snow was looking for her group and a way to the center. Then the girl wearing a mask on the side of her head appeared.  
“Oh, I’d never expect that I’d face you princess Snow.” She said with a giggle.  
“Why? were you a former servant or something?” Snow asked  
“No no, not at all. My sisters and I got scattered at random so we don’t really know who we’ll face. My name is Neptune, and I’d like to challenge you to a duel.” She challenged.  
“All right. I accept!” Snow replied.  
“Weapon ärm: Trident!” Neptune called summoning said weapon.  
“Weapon ärm: Ice sword!” Snow shouted clasping her hands together Ice formed around both hands and extended from there creating a blade about the size of a broad sword. Neptune ran forward and thrusted her trident at Snow, the princess swung her arms forward blocking the trident’s stab with her ice sword. The force of the stab caused Snow to slide back. ‘The girl’s stronger than she looks.’ Snow thought slowly backing away from Neptune while blocking her attacks.  
“What’s wrong? Too afraid to attack?” Neptune taunted.  
“No.” Snow stated looking behind her making sure that she doesn’t back into a wall. Neptune then side stepped to Snow’s side just as she turned at a corner. She then attacked and Snow blocked.  
“I think I know what you’re trying to do.” Said Neptune. “You’re trying to get to the center, nice try.” She then lead Snow to back into a wall. Snow then grit her teeth and swung her blade at her opponent but she blocked it.  
“Bummer, cuz it looked like it was going to work.” Said Snow as she swung at her opponent again, knocking her back. She smirked and charged ahead.  
In another part of the labyrinth Alviss was against the man who created the labyrinth, Jupiter. He ended up being trapped behind a clear green wall. Alviss charged at the wall multiple times only eventually dislocate a shoulder then he started hitting it with his rod. Jupiter chuckled.  
“It’s useless.” He began, “No one can get past-” Just then one of Alviss’s totem poles sprung up from under him and rammed him against the labyrinth’s forcefield.  
“I was kind of hoping that you’d be sent flying but being smashed against the force field works too.” Alviss teased rolling his shoulder. The wall disappeared and Alviss started running.  
”You bastard!” Jupiter shouted. Alviss turned his head and stuck his tongue out.  
“Bleh!” He mocked as he ran.  
“Oh no you don’t! Nature ärm: Arial wall!” Jupiter shouted. The clear wall appeared blocking off Alviss’s escape. Alviss turned around and summoned his thirteen totem bo staff. “Now that you’re trapped like a rat. There’s nothing left to do but to kill you.” He ran forward and tried to punch Alviss but he evaded it by hitting his fist out of the way with his staff and then he ran behind him to the chain on his belt. Jupiter quickly turned and grabbed his staff. “What do think you’re doing?” Alviss withdrew his staff.  
“Thirteen totem pole!” He shouted. Then a bunch of totem poles sprung from the ground but Jupiter dodged all of them. “Darkness Ärm: Caged Bird!” Alviss then said without thinking. Jupiter then turned into a bird trapped in a cage. The green wall disappeared. Alviss then grabbed the cage and started running.  
“Peep peep peep!” The Jupiter bird complained.  
“Yeah I don’t like it either.” Said Alviss as if he understood what the bird said, “But this keeps you from summoning that wall.” Elsewhere in the labyrinth Nanashi was against a blonde woman in purple.  
“You’re quite a beauty.” He complimented. “It would be a shame to scratch that pretty face, so I’ll let you go first.”  
“My aren’t you a gentleman?” The woman giggled. “Though you did forget to introduce yourself. My name is Venus by the way.”  
“I’m Nanashi, pleased to meet you.” Said Nanashi. “Before we start I want to know something, who is Peta to the Chess?”  
“He’s a knight but that’s all I really know about him.” Said Venus.  
“Thanks, that’s all I need to know.” Said Nanashi, “but as I said, ladies first.”  
“Very well.” Said Venus flipping her hair, “Weapon Ärm: Goddess Tact!” A ribbon appeared in her hand, she flicked it using it as a whip. Nanashi jumped back before the improvised whip could hit him.  
“Weapon Ärm: Griffon Lance!” He shouted summoning his spear. He then wrapped the tip of the ribbon around the tip of his spear and pulled it down trying to take Venus down as well. Venus, however, pulled in the opposite direction of Nanashi’s spear which ripped the ribbon, destroying the ärm.  
“Weapon Ärm: Arrow of Eros!” She said quickly summoning a bow and arrow.  
“Oh crap!” Nanashi muttered, his spear turning back into a ring. He then started running with Venus taking aim at him and shooting arrows, all of them missing. At the same time Diarmuid faced off a woman with spiky hair wearing some tight clothing and several earrings on one ear, including the earing determining her rank. Diarmuid drew his swords while she summoned a rod.  
“What? No powerful ärm that you’d like to unleash right now?” Diarmuid joked.  
“No, I want to be a little nicer by just summoning my weapon since it seems that you don’t have your own ärm.” She explained.  
“All right, fair enough.” Said Diarmuid ignoring introductions, twirling his swords. The woman twirled her rod in response. The two charged, ready to attack. Diarmuid’s swords clashed with the woman’s rod. She then muttered something. Diarmuid leapt back.  
“What did you say?” He asked.  
“Pluto. My name is Pluto.” She introduced herself. He sheathed one of his swords and pointed to himself.  
“Diarmuid.” He said then he drew his sword and the fight resumed. Feet shuffled around the labyrinth as the two continued to block one another’s attacks as they unknowingly moved through the labyrinth. Diarmuid bumped into something and fell back, whatever he hit also made a noise. He groaned and rubbed his head. He looked up to see the boy that had recently joined team Mär clenching his side with Pluto’s rod pointed at him. He summoned two swords and pointed them towards her, exposing his wound.  
“So you can use ärm huh?” She smirked, “You just might be more fun to toy with.”  
“Now hold on Pluto, he’s my prey.” Said a voice. Mercury walked into the fight. Sterling stiffened up and started shaking.  
“Why not team up?” Diarmuid suggested, “It’ll be more or less a fair fight between the four of us. Besides, you even have an advantage with him wounded and me not being able to use ärm.”  
“What?” Sterling questioned.  
“Very well, but step aside Pluto.” Said Mercury.  
“What? How dare you talk to your elders like that!” Pluto shouted.  
“There really is no need for you to fight, because I can just skewer them without even trying.” Mercury bragged.  
“Oh? How come your so called prey is still alive?” Pluto taunted.  
“Mere mistake that won’t happen again, now step aside.” Said Mercury.  
“Run.” Sterling whispered withdrawing his ärm and grabbing his side again. Diarmuid looked at him confused.  
“Like hell I am!” Pluto yelled back.  
“Run.” Sterling repeated. Diarmuid nodded and the two crawled off leaving the two argue. They kept running until Diarmuid spotted Alviss and he stopped. Sterling kept going and ended up running into him. The birdcage he held went flying in the air Alviss got up quickly and ran after the bird cage and fell back as he caught it. He looked to see the bird inside flapping around. He sighed relieved.  
“Peep peep peep peep peep peep!” The bird complained.  
“Hey watch where you’re going.” Alviss scolded.  
“Ah shut up! It’s not like you were all that aware either!” Sterling argued back he then cringed in pain. Diarmuid then pinched the two on the ear.  
“Ow ow ow!” The two complained.  
“Settle down you two, don’t forget we’re in a fight against a group of Chess pieces, so we can’t afford to fight amongst ourselves now, especially when it seems that some members in the group don’t trust each other.” He said.  
“There they are!” They heard Pluto shout.  
“Oh you have a third one? Not that it matters anyway.” Mercury said.  
“Oh don’t be so full of yourself.” Said Pluto.  
“Hey, can I borrow a sword?” Alviss asked.  
“Sure, here.” Said Diarmuid lending Alviss a sword.  
“Don’t come any closer.” Alviss warned putting the bird cage down and slipping the sword through the bars.  
“Oh please do you think that would scare-” Mercury began nearly taking a step. Alviss nearly stabbed the bird. The bird dodged it then chirped back to complain.  
“What a shame, I missed. If your friends don’t cooperate I can’t guarantee that you’ll come out of this alive.” Alviss said to the bird.  
“Oh please is that supposed to scare us?” Mercury asked. “You’re just threatening some bird!”  
“Hey wait! What if that isn’t a bird?” Pluto asked.  
“Then if you’ll kill him if you move.” Alviss taunted.  
“That’s one of us isn’t it?” Pluto concluded.  
“Perhaps.” Said Alviss being very vague. “If you let us run through the labyrinth for two minutes I’ll release the bird but if you try to kill us here well, the bird dies too.”  
“Ha! Like you’re in any position to negotiate.” Said Mercury about to summon his ärm but Pluto grabbed his shoulder. “What you’re not considering going along with this are you?”  
“Think about it, why would he be carrying a bird cage throughout the labyrinth with a bird he’s willing to kill? Plus I don’t think he was lugging that bird cage with him when we first entered the labyrinth.” She said. “It’s probably an ärm.”  
“You could be right.” Said Alviss, “But you’re going to have to give us two minutes to find out.”  
“All right. I’ll give you two minutes.” Said Pluto.  
“Thank you, I’m glad we can manage to agree on something.” Said Alviss getting a head start before the other two.  
“Hey wait!” Sterling shouted running after him and Diarmuid running following.  
“What the hell are you doing? We had them in our hands!” Mercury complained.  
“Trust me, it’s more fun this way if they run around for a little while and release a possible comrade. Just be patient Mercury, it will only take a few more minutes.” Said Pluto.  


**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on Fanfiction.net


End file.
